Pet peeves of games?

Game Reviews & Recommendations
1

I am talking about small pet peeves, not the more obvious corporate tactics like battle passes or games-as-a-service models. Little things that bug you.

For me, I can’t stand when games use massive damage numbers. A prime example from my own experience is MapleStory. You start with low damage, but soon enough, you’re dealing hundreds, then thousands, then millions. It gets frustrating. When numbers get that big, it’s hard to get a meaningful sense of progress there is little difference between hitting 1,248,388 versus 1,253,940. I would much rather see smaller numbers where differences are easier to track and actually feel significant.

11 Likes
2

When you can’t pause cutscenes, your only options are to skip them or watch them through.

10 Likes
3

This. Especially when there’s zero indication that you can’t pause the cutscene. When I press the Start (or similar) button in a cutscene and it skips rather than stopping or displaying a “hold button to skip” prompt, I become really annoyed.

9 Likes
4

There is no “Exit to Desktop” option in the pause menu, so I have to exit to the main menu, wait for it to load, and then exit to the desktop. There’s never a reason for me to return to the main menu except to quit the game, so just let me do it in one step.

8 Likes
5

That’s why I almost always just save and then alt f4

6 Likes
6

Pressing Alt + F4 fills me with the (probably unfounded) fear that I will corrupt a save file or face some consequences for not exiting properly. I should probably get over that.

6 Likes
7

Unless you do it while it’s in the middle of writing to the file or if it needs to write to a file on close and Alt + F4 skips that process, it should be fine.

5 Likes
8

When a game makes you constantly gather crafting materials everywhere you go.

Some games are designed around their crafting systems, which is fine, but many modern games have awkwardly integrated it, forcing you to stop frequently to check every container in every room for sticks and scraps of string just to get the upgrades you need.

4 Likes
9

When it doesn’t make sense, here is an extra dollar.

For that, the Dead Island games were awful.

Gather wires, circuit boards, and tape, then proceed to the crafting bench to enhance your machete. Oh, but you don’t have enough money. I’m sorry.

I am going to make it myself! Why am I paying here, and who is it? A zombie apocalypse is upon us! For what purpose may they require funds?

3 Likes
10

When I want to explore the area but an NPC keeps telling me to hurry up every 10 seconds. Like, sorry, I’m trying to enjoy the game! I guess I’ll just move on.

2 Likes
11

Locking cosmetics behind artificial hurdles for example, FF7R has obvious changing closets all over the place, yet even though you get outfits during your first run, you can’t use them to change costumes until you’ve beaten the game.

1 Like
12

Constraints on inventory. Instead of worrying about keeping track of everything, I would rather simply vacuum everything up and be able to label things as rubbish.